I`m Russian, 36, suffering from sth like shizophrenia and insomnia as its symptom. FULL insomnia, I mean without any help I don`t sleep at al for several nights in a raw…then psychotic symptoms start. Psychotropic drugs dont work for me. Neither do many alternative ways I tried. Hope to find he some new ideas and help. Wanna liiiiive!!!

Sorry, I didn`t see your reply to my message. I was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder several years ago. When my the 1st psychosis happened I had NO sleep problems. The insomnia started a couple days before the manifestation of my second psychosis. Five yrs ago. Psychosis is over long time ago but insomnia is present all this period of time. I read a lot of articles about PARTICULARLY MY insomnia and came to the conclusion that it is caused by neurotransmitters imbalance. In psychiatric papers I had found that the way to correct this disbalance is to do ECT (Electroconvulsive therapy). I did it. It restored my sleep (without changing any sleep habit!!!) . BUT!!! only for several days.

I’m in a big trouble with my sleep. I have tried so many approaches to restore my sleep (at least partly!) but I didn’t have a stable result from any of them.

I can’t really comment on the psychosis or schizoaffective disorder because I am not a doctor. Have you spoken to your doctor about cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia? It may be helpful to identify and address any thoughts and behaviors that may be interfering with your sleep.

As I told you in email, I did Sleepio course from which I didn’t identiy any bad thoughts and behaviors that may interfere with my sleep. I completed all asteps of sleepio except of sleep restriction which I cannot do because I simly cannot sleep for a several nights in a raw!!! Does your CBT-i course any different from Sleepio? Or contest is the same? Can you please advise me what can I do in my extremely difficult situation? Maybe you know some specialist who can help me? Or give an advise? I don’t know what to do!!!…:(((…I tried everything I could!!!…nothing I tried helped me…:(((…I’m exhausted…:(((…I’m dying from my awful insomnia…:(((…I already did suicide twice…I have suicidic thoughts all the time…because I feel awfull without sleep…:(((…If I could have at least four hours a night I would be happy…I cannot work, cannot have a family, cannot have childrean due to this stupid insomnia!!! Can you help me in any way? I would be more than thankful to you!!!!!

I would urge you to discuss your sleep and your suicidal thoughts with your doctor without delay. If you are not happy with your current doctor, seek a second opinion.

It sounds as though you would likely benefit from CBT-I, but in-person therapy would likely be the best choice for you due to your extremely high levels of anxiety and the fact you are having suicidal thoughts and have been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.

My course uses evidence-based CBT-I techniques, so you will likely recognize many similar techniques as you learned in the Sleepio course. With that being said, I am not sure how much support you get with Sleepio — clients of Insomnia Coach (my course) get ongoing personal support and feedback from me for the entire duration of the course. This support is not restricted to each Session — clients can email or text me at any time at any point during the course for support, reassurance, and guidance.

My course does include sleep restriction. It is still possible to practice this, even if you cannot sleep for several nights in a row. We calculate the amount of time to allot for sleep based on an average nightly sleep duration calculated using at least one week of sleep diary data.

I hope this helps and, again, I urge you to seek medical advice without delay if you are having suicidal thoughts.

I cannot tell to my doctor about my suicidal thoughts. He’ll immidiately put me to hospital where I’ll get no help at all!!! The stuff in our psychiatric hospitals treat patients in a very bad manner. It’s even worse than prison! I was several times in all our hospitals with my terrible insomnia. Doctors in our hospitals are very bad specialists. They cannot help me at all! They only prescribe meds and meds that don’t help me at all.

I’m satisfyed with my doctor. He is one of the best in our town (I live in a small town). I also visited another doctors for second opinion. They told me the same things. All of them agree that I developed a very rare case of resistance to ALL!!! psychotropic meds at once!!! They do not know why this happened though.

Martin, I don’t have anxiety.

With Sleepio I didn’t get support at all! There’s only forum for users who can give some advises if they want and can. During the Sleepio course I didn’t get any support at all! I chose Sleepio for CBT-I because they offered it for me for free.

How on Earth sleep restriction can be practiced if I don’t sleep for several nights in a raw? I cannot get up from my bad after two nights without sleep! Because I’m exhausted! It’s not a transitor insomnia, I suffer from it already for several years!

Our doctors cannot give any other medical advice except of taking psychotropic drugs that don’t help me at all!

In addition, I don’t have problems that state Sleepio. The only exxeption is that I cannot adjust my room temperature. In my flat that’s impossible.

Sleep restriction uses your average nightly sleep duration taken over one or two weeks. So, I suggest keeping a sleep diary for at least one week (ideally two). Each morning, write down how much sleep you got the previous night. After one or two weeks, calculate your average nightly sleep duration.

Once you know your average nightly sleep duration, add half an hour to this time and you will have a suggested amount of time to allot for sleep (if this is less than five-and-a-half hours, stick to allotting five-and-a-half hours for sleep).

I would suggest speaking with your doctor before practicing sleep restriction due to your medical history. Sleep compression may be a better alternative for you — this involves reducing the amount of time you allot for sleep by 20 minutes or so each week until the amount of time you allot for sleep more closely matches your average nightly sleep duration.

I have problem practicing sleep restriction, i.e. I feel terrible after even a single sleepless night. I don’t know why. My doctors don’t know either. Very bad feelings in my body. So bad that I cry, can’t stand it. So, I spend days in my bad. Not all the time but still. And it’s getting worse and worse as my insomnia continues. Maybe I need to do medical tests to see what’s wrong in my body and correct the status before practicing sleep restriction.

I visited a good doctor and she said that the reason I feel so awfull physically after sleepless night is due to metobolism changed in my body after long time taking psychotropic drugs. I don’t know if traditional medicine can help me with this issue. We don’t have specilities here in Russia who can correct this problem. I talked to chinese doctor if he could help me with this issue. He said he can try. But disturbed metabolism is extremely difficult to treat as I understand.

I also read through your article about sleep restriction. You wtite that I don’t need to go to bed only if I feel sleepy. BUT!!! I don’t feel aleepy even after several days without sleep in a raw. And I don’t get tired even after several days maraphone without sleep. I feel awfull, exhausted, wanted to die, with suicidal thoughts but not tired in common sence. I figured out from the articles it is because my adenoside accumulation system is broken. It’s either don’t synthesied in a normal amont or get destroyed. Intense physical and mental activity help to increase level of adenosine VERY LITTLE!!! And even after intence physical and mental work I don’t feel tired and sleepy. My adenosine biochemistry id broken down and I have no idea how to restore it.

What do you think with these problems I have is it still possible to practice sleep restriction? I don’t know if I’ll manage it. If I could sleep at least a few hours a night I could definitely try sleep restriction.

When I was doing a Sleepio course (which I get for free) I found out that I don’t have such problems that they describe: I don’t drink coffee, tee, alcohol or other stimulants during the day. I sleep in a completely dark room, there is no noise during the night that can desturb me. But Sleepio don’t provide any support during the course. The only thing I can do in Sleepio is to talk to other users. They also organize live sessions with psychologists from time to time. But these specialists answer only most common problems. So I honestly don’t know if your insomnia coach can help me to fix my sleep problems, at least partly. I would be happy if you could help me. It’s also very expensive for me to take your course. I live in Russia, in a small town and I cannot work already for several years, so I don’t have much money. I hope you can understand this.

So, I don’t know what to do in my extremely difficult situation with my sleep…

Did you have clients who couldn’t sleep for several days in a raw and who benefited from your course.

I also wish to add that I don’t have anxiety and I don’t afraid of going to bed. I don’t have racing thoughts. The reason I cannot sleep is seriously disturbed biochemistry in my brain, i.e. excitatory mediators are in elevated levels and calming mediators in low level. And this disbalance doesn’t fix by itself already for several methods.

I also don’t sensitive to herbs, so they don’t help me to sleep at all!!!

Taking in mind all this information, could you still help me to fix my sleep at least partly. If I start to sleep at least for four hours a night constantly I would be very happy! My life was ruined by insomnia. I lost my job, family and many friends.

My family don’t want to support me at all!!! They just don’t give a shit about my condition and health problems…:(((…and if I’ll be doing a sleep restriction they won’t be supporting me for sure!